The Arizona sentinel., 1887-08-27
GREAT CROOKS.
Romantic Ideas Dispeled by an
 Old Criminal.
The Skill and Courage of Cracksmen Great Iy Grimes Not Prof. itable--NOted Forgers
 and Burglars.

and BufSlarS' Great criminals are few in number You read of great crimes sometimes, and hear of their perpetrators being tried, but the facts adduced in the trials and the punishments inflicted are ridic- ulously disproportionate to the offenses of which one hears so much. There IS certain literature-or is it literature?- which purports to tell about criminals In reality it extols detectives, who exalt the qualities of the class whose deeds they profess to detect l have been reading-and I suppose everybody has been reading. too-about great crim- inals in the newspapers. The boast fulness of the detective and the imag- ination of the reporter have combined to make some interesting reading, but if you recall what you have read you will find that very few great criminals have been told about, and apart from murders very few great crimes have been committed. One or two professional forgers, half score of burglars, a cluster of twenty five confidence men, and the whole list is exhausted. The fact is there is no such army of criminals fertile of ex- pedient. ready of device, watchful Of every chance to break in and steal, as the police would have you believe. A great many people are repeatedly dis honest, but the professional burglar who "burgles' only for a living, the forger who contemplates a second forgery before he expends the profits of his first, is a rare article, and nine crimes out of ten against property are incidents or eddies in the current of life created by purely adventitious cir cumstances, and not part of the regular flow of the stream, much as they inter- fere with and disturb it.
 The detective will deny this, although he knows it is true, and in his denial point you to the careers of Sheridan, Porter Brady, Brockaway, Elliot and half a dozen others who are dis tinguished in crime. Its funny that some of them are not paying penalty of their varied wickedness by long terms of imprisonment. The fact re- mains that they are not and either the detective can't convict of what he charges, or the criminal does not commit so freely as he is charged withaL The latter is the case Jimmy Hope, who aided in carry ing out a fabulous number of millions from the Manhattan Bank, had to steal for living within ten months or work. He couldn't have had much out of the great robbery. The Kensington Bank burglars, who also got millions, didn't profit much if their subsequent condi- tion is faithfully reported, for one or two of them were soon in prison for very trifing offenses, and another died in great poverty in a charity asylum. The fact of it is there is no such thing as profitable roguery-or robbery-by any of the means used by the profes- sional "crook." The reason is not found in the fact that he is improvident or extravagant or that his legal ex- penses eat up his returns. He simply doesn't have any such returns as he is credited with, and which the police advertise for him and the losers too frequently and untruthfully clamor about
 was looking over the criminal list the other day of the convicted prOfes- sionals confined in New York State. They were numerous enough, but they were contemptibly small To make your Vidoeq you must have first youl great criminal and his great crime The American Vidocq makes himself with these two essentials left out and having opportunity to tall with one of the alleged great criminals he confirmed my belief in the vision ary character of these shrewd anC clever rascals with no greater etfor than revealing his own stupidity. hunted up another, professional whC has repeated his offenses sufficiently tC entitle him to any other distinction than that of an honest man, l would mention that he wears stripes now except that it might draw from thu value of his statements in the mind of some who are too easily prejudiced Anyway, he is better authority thai the police. whose vanity in their owl capacity may be a proper pride, bu leads to some mighty tall lying.
 1.-The fact is that professional thieve and rogues are not numerous in an, locality, and if crime were the sol source of support for the few hundred